1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land
Encyclopedia
In February 1948, a team of Australian and American researchers and support staff came together in northern Australia to begin, what was then, one of the largest scientific expeditions ever to have taken place in this country—the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (also known as the Arnhem Land Expedition). Today it remains one of the most significant, most ambitious and least understood expeditions ever mounted. Seventeen men and women journeyed across the remote region known as Arnhem Land
in northern Australia for nine months. From varying disciplinary perspectives, and under the guidance of expedition leader Charles Mountford, they investigated the Indigenous populations and the environment of Arnhem Land. In addition to an ethnographer, archaeologist, photographer, and filmmaker, the expedition included a botanist, a mammalogist, an ichthyologist, an ornithologist, and a team of medical and nutritional scientists. Their first base camp was Groote Eylandt
in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Three months later they moved to Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula and three months following that to Oenpelli (now Gunbalanya) in west Arnhem Land. The journey involved the collaboration of different sponsors and partners (among them the National Geographic Society
, the Smithsonian Institution
, and various agencies of the Commonwealth of Australia). In the wake of the expedition came volumes of scientific publications, kilometres of film, thousands of photographs, tens of thousands of scientific specimens, and a vast array of artefacts and paintings from across Arnhem Land. The legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition is vast, complex, and, at times, contentious.
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
in northern Australia for nine months. From varying disciplinary perspectives, and under the guidance of expedition leader Charles Mountford, they investigated the Indigenous populations and the environment of Arnhem Land. In addition to an ethnographer, archaeologist, photographer, and filmmaker, the expedition included a botanist, a mammalogist, an ichthyologist, an ornithologist, and a team of medical and nutritional scientists. Their first base camp was Groote Eylandt
Groote Eylandt
Groote Eylandt is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northeastern Australia. It is the homeland of, and is owned by, the Anindilyakwa people who speak the isolated Anindilyakwa language)....
in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Three months later they moved to Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula and three months following that to Oenpelli (now Gunbalanya) in west Arnhem Land. The journey involved the collaboration of different sponsors and partners (among them the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
, the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, and various agencies of the Commonwealth of Australia). In the wake of the expedition came volumes of scientific publications, kilometres of film, thousands of photographs, tens of thousands of scientific specimens, and a vast array of artefacts and paintings from across Arnhem Land. The legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition is vast, complex, and, at times, contentious.
Expedition Members
- Charles Pearcy Mountford - leader, ethnographer and film-maker, Honorary Associate Curator in Ethnology, South Australian Museum, Adelaide
- Frank M Setzler - Deputy Leader and Archaeologist, Head Curator, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution,Washington
- Herbert G Deignan - Ornithologist, Associate Curator of Birds, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
- David H Johnson - Mammalogist, Curator of Mammals, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
- Robert R Miller - Icthyologist, Associate Curator of Fishes, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
- Raymond L Specht - Botanist, Lecturer, Department of Botany, University of Adelaide
- Frederick D McCarthy - Anthropologist, Department of Anthropology, Australian Museum, Sydney
- Harrison Howell Walker - Photographer and Staff Writer, National Geographic Society, Washington
- Bessie I Mountford - Honorary Secretary
- Brian Billington - Medical Officer, Institute of Anatomy, Canberra
- Margaret McArthur - Nutritionist, Institute of Anatomy, Canberra
- Kelvin Hodges - Biochemist, Institute of Anatomy, Canberra
- William E Harney - Guide and Liaison Officer
- Peter Bassett-Smith - Cine-Photographer
- Keith Cordon - Transport Officer
- John E Bray - Cook and Honorary Entomologist
- Reginald Hollow - Cook (2 months)
Collections
- National Museum of AustraliaNational Museum of AustraliaThe National Museum of Australia was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980. The National Museum preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation....
- Australian MuseumAustralian MuseumThe Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
- National Museum of Natural HistoryNational Museum of Natural HistoryThe National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
, Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines... - Art Gallery of New South WalesArt Gallery of New South WalesThe Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
- South Australian MuseumSouth Australian MuseumThe South Australian Museum is a museum in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultural precinct of the Adelaide Parklands.-History:...
- Art Gallery of South AustraliaArt Gallery of South AustraliaThe Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...
- State Library of South AustraliaState Library of South AustraliaThe State Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research library in the state with a collection focus on South Australian information, and general reference material for...
(literary collections) - Tasmanian Museum and Art GalleryTasmanian Museum and Art GalleryThe Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1843, by the Royal Society of Tasmania under the leadership of Sir John Franklin, the oldest Royal Society outside of England.-Governance:...
- Art Gallery of Western AustraliaArt Gallery of Western AustraliaThe Art Gallery of Western Australia is a public gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth, Western Australia. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia...
- Queensland Art GalleryQueensland Art GalleryThe Queensland Art Gallery is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre, and is located nearest to Brisbane River at South Bank...
- National Gallery of VictoriaNational Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
Further reading
- Mountford, C. P. (Ed.). (1956). Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 1: Art, Myth and Symbolism. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
- Mountford, C. P. (Ed.). (1960). Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 2: Anthropology and Nutrition. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
- Mountford, C. P., and Specht, R. (Eds.). (1958). Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 3: Botany and Plant Ecology. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
- Specht, R. (Ed.). (1964). Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 4: Zoology. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
- May, Sally K. in press 2009. Collecting Indigenous Cultures: myth, politics and collaboration in the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition. California: Altamira.
- May, Sally K. 2008 ‘The Art of Collecting: Charles Pearcy Mountford’. In Nicholas Peterson, Lindy Allen, and Louise Hamby, The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.
- May, Sally K. with Donald Gumurdul, Jacob Manakgu, Gabriel Maralngurra and Wilfred Nawirridj. 2005. 'You Write it Down and Bring it Back… That's What We Want" - Revisiting the 1948 Removal of Human Remains from Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Australia', in Smith, Claire & Wobst, H. Martin (eds). Indigenous Peoples and Archaeology. London: Routledge.
- May, Sally K. 2005 ‘Collecting the ‘Last Frontier’’, in Hamby, Louise (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.
- May, Sally K, Jennifer McKinnon and Jason Raupp, 2009. ‘Boats on Bark: an analysis of Groote Eylandt bark paintings featuring Macassan praus from the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition’, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
- May, Sally K. 2003 'Colonial Collections of Portable Art and Intercultural Encounters in Aboriginal Australia', in Paul Faulstich, Sven Ouzman, and Paul S.C. Taçon (eds), Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers. California: Altamira. 1, 8, p. 1-17.
- May, Sally K. 2000. The Last Frontier? Acquiring the American-Australian Scientific Expedition Ethnographic Collection 1948, Unpublished B.A. (Honours) Thesis, Flinders University of South Australia.
- Neale, Margo. 1993 'Charles Mountford and the 'Bastard Barks' A Gift from the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 1948. In Lynne Seear & Julie Ewington, Brought to Light, Australian Art 1850 - 1965, From the Queensland Art Gallery Collection. Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery.
- Brittain, N. (1990). The South Australian Museum collection of Aboriginal bark paintings from Northern Australia. Unpublished Honors BA Thesis, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.
- Calwell, A. (1978). Be just and fear not. Adelaide: Rigby Limited.
- Clarke, A. (1998). Engendered fields: The language of the 1948 American-Australian expedition to Arnhem Land. In Redefining Archaeology, Feminist Perspectives. Canberra: North Australia Research Unit.
- Florek, S. (1993). F. D. McCarthy’s string figures from Yirrkala: A museum perspective. Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 17, pp. 117–24.
- Johnson, D. H. (1955). The incredible kangaroo. National geographic, 108(4), 487–500.
- Walker, H. (1949). Cruise to Stone Age Arnhem Land. National Geographic, 96(3), 417–30.
- Jones, C. (1987). The toys of the American Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land ethnographic collection. Unpublished Diploma Thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney.
- Lamshed, M. (1972). Monty: A biography of CP. Mountford. Adelaide: Rigby.
- McArthur, M., Billington, B. P., and Hodges, K. J. (2000). Nutrition and health (1948) of Aborigines in settlements in Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 9(3), 164–213.
- McArthur, M., McCarthy, F., and Specht, R. (2000). Nutrition studies (1948) of nomadic Aborigines in Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Asia Pacific Journal of clinical nutrition, 9(3), 215–23.
- Simpson, C. (1951). Adam in Ochre: Inside Aboriginal Australia. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
External links
- Barks, Birds and Billabongs: Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (International Symposium being held at the National Museum of AustraliaNational Museum of AustraliaThe National Museum of Australia was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980. The National Museum preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation....
16–20 November 2009): http://www.nma.gov.au/research/centre_for_historical_research/conferences_and_seminars/barks_birds_billabongs/
- State Library of South Australia (Mountford-Sheard Collection): http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?area_id=15&nav_id=1971